Portland man sentenced for strangling woman

Terry Egan faced the man who strangled her daughter and told him Friday that he destroyed all the dreams she had for her teenager.

"I know you're not a parent, but a very common thing parents do is look at their newborns and say a prayer: 'Please, God, don't let pain and suffering touch their lives.'"

Paul Eugene Frizzelle, 38, was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the hearing in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Moments earlier, Frizzelle -- a pornographic Web site operator -- pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for the Aug. 28, 2007, death of his girlfriend, Emily Egan.

The 18-year-old Egan, described by her mother as a sweet but "naive girl" who had bipolar disorder, apparently met Frizzelle after responding to an ad that he had posted for models. Frizzelle started photographing Egan in dresses, then topless and eventually completely nude. Terry Egan said Frizzelle successfully lured her daughter into a world of marijuana use and porn under the guise that it was alternative and cool.

When the girl moved into Frizzelle's downtown Portland apartment in May 2007, Terry Egan tried everything she could to get her daughter to move out, but at the same time didn't want to alienate the girl, she said.

"She knew I was afraid, I hated you and I wanted you off the face of this Earth," Terry Egan told Frizzelle, tears filling her eyes.

But Emily Egan always saw the best in people, her mom said.

Terry Egan was finally getting through to her daughter when she attended one of the girl's therapy sessions on Aug. 27, and Emily said she'd planned to tell Frizzelle that night that she was moving out the next day.

But the 18-year-old never got the chance. Frizzelle strangled Egan early the next morning.

Portland police were alerted to the crime after Frizzelle started e-mailing and calling half a dozen out-of-town friends on the morning of Aug. 28, saying he had done something horrendous. A few called 9-1-1 dispatchers in the metro area, but they weren't sure of Frizzelle's address.

Shortly before 3 p.m. when police tracked down the right address, an apartment building at Southwest 11th Avenue and Jefferson Street, they discovered the unit covered in blood from cuts Frizzelle had carved into his forearms. Egan's cold body lay on the bed.

Terry Egan said the initial weeks and months after her daughter's killing were even more difficult because some people judged her. "They say, 'Oh, she's not a good mom,'" she said.

Terry Egan, however, knows she did everything she could -- without pushing her daughter away.

Sensing that Frizzelle's mother, too, must feel as if she were being judged, Terry Egan began searching for her by calling people with the same last name. She finally reached a relative and asked her to pass on a message.

"I needed to tell her it was not her fault," Terry Egan said. "... Children grow up and have free will."

Frizzelle didn't apologize when given an opportunity to speak at the hearing, but he said "there's nothing I can do or say that would bring her back."

Terry Egan thanked prosecutor Traci Anderson and lead Detective Mark Slater. She also reminded people what she, Emily's 12-year-old brother and so many others lost.

"I miss her voice," Terry Egan said. "I miss hugging her. I miss the smell of her hair. ... I miss her freckles."